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Isolation for classes, rapid tests: Spahn proposes a new concept for schools
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“Schools are massive events on a daily basis”
The current lockdown is not enough for Professor Frank Hufert. In an interview with WELT, the director of the Institute of Virology at the Brandenburg Medical School explains why we cannot avoid stricter measures, especially in schools.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn advocates the use of rapid tests to contain the coronavirus in schools. He is also in favor of isolating entire classes when an infection occurs.
GRAMHealth Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) proposed a new concept to contain corona infections in schools. “To really break the chains of infection and at the same time remain practical, that’s the task,” Spahn told the Germany publishing network (Monday).
Specifically, he suggested that if an infection occurs, the affected class should be sent to home isolation immediately. So far, this has not been the case in some cases or only in the immediate neighbors of infected people. Rapid tests will also be used. “After the negative rapid tests on the fifth day, the students were able to go back to school,” Spahn said.
If this is feasible from the point of view of the federal states on the site, it should be discussed on Wednesday. Then the country’s leaders want to decide together with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on a single switch on how to proceed in the crown pandemic.
Regarding the current situation of the infection, Spahn said: “We have solid ground under our feet, but we have not yet overcome the mountain.” It depends on whether the numbers will drop in the next few days. “Much will depend on that on Wednesday.”
The decision was postponed in the latest federal and state consultations last week. The federal government had also called for additional precautions in schools, including cutting classes in half and introducing an alternative education system. The federal states rejected this.
The federal president of the GEW education union, Marlis Tepe, demanded free masks for students and teachers. Teachers should also receive particularly good FFP2 protective masks for free, Tepe told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday editions). If schools are to remain open as long as possible, protection against infection must be a top priority. This included “in addition to alternate lessons, hygiene measures, keeping one’s distance, regularly ventilating rooms and the occasional use of masks at school.”
Merz for hotel use
The director of the virological institute at the University Clinic of Düsseldorf, Jörg Timm, told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” (“FAS”) that he considered that the previous position of the federal states, according to which schools were not drivers of the pandemic, “It is no longer sustainable.” Children 12 and older are “just as contagious as adults,” said Timm. Therefore, the schoolchildren “definitely played a role.”
Meanwhile, CDU presidential candidate Friedrich Merz mentioned the use of currently closed hotels for school lessons. “You could move to hotels or other large rooms, and schools could offer lessons in shifts,” Merz told “Tagesspiegel” (Sunday edition).
It is essential to keep the number of missed lessons as low as possible. “The damage that would otherwise occur cannot be repaired with money,” Merz warned. Those responsible had to develop more imagination on how the lessons could be maintained.
